home > by publication type > news releases > Ten Years after Rwanda, International Community Unprepared to Deal with Crises like Darfur, Says New Council Special Report
Email
September 27, 2004
Council on Foreign Relations
Peacekeeping Forces Urgently Needed to Protect Refugee Camps
September 27, 2004—Ten years after the Rwandan genocide, the tragically slow global response to Darfur shows that the international community still lacks the capacity to deal effectively with humanitarian crises, says a new Council Special Report on Darfur. “The crisis in Darfur reveals that despite all the promises since Rwanda that such a catastrophe would not be allowed to happen again, the international community still lacks the institutions, procedures, and often the political unity necessary to respond in a timely way.” The report also calls for urgent deployment of international forces to guard refugee camps, stating that “peacekeepers in the region can best be used to guard the camps of the displaced, and in the context of a political agreement, provide security for the repatriation of displaced villagers.”
Written by Cheryl O. Igiri and Princeton N. Lyman of the Council on Foreign Relations, the report, Giving Meaning to “Never Again”: Seeking an Effective Response to the Crisis in Darfur and Beyond, looks at Darfur in the context of lessons learned from Rwanda, and recommends how to end this crisis and avoid future ones.
In the short term, peacekeepers can be deployed to protect camps, as the African Union (AU) is offering. The United Nations will have to assume responsibility for the cost. Proposals for a large U.N. peacekeeping force to disarm the militia and pacify the region are unrealistic and could lead to further turmoil. Simultaneously, “Every effort must be made to re-engage the parties in political negotiations. It may be necessary to broaden the discussions, to include representatives of other regions in Sudan and a broader set of political parties, because the issues are so fundamental to the future of the Sudanese state itself.”
In the long term, and to avoid new Darfurs, there must be one credible entity: an independent, international ombudsman. “The primary international instrument for political and military reaction, the U.N. Security Council, cannot be counted on to respond to such a crisis free of conflicting political interests, thus paralyzing the international community when it comes to imposing sanctions or other harsh measures.” The international community should therefore “establish and empower a new entity that can assemble the relevant reports of an impending crisis— from governments, NGOs, and international agencies— and be able to bring it to the attention of the international community as a credible and virtually unassailable report.” That entity, as independent as the U.N. inspector-general, might also be authorized to convene the parties to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide to deal with an emerging crisis and take early, preventive action on the basis of the information assembled.
Among the report’s additional recommendations for Darfur:
Additional recommendations for “beyond Darfur”:
Founded in 1921, the Council on Foreign Relations is an independent, national membership organization and a nonpartisan center for scholars dedicated to producing and disseminating ideas so that individual and corporate members, as well as policymakers, journalists, students, and interested citizens in the United States and other countries, can better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other governments.
For more information contact Marie X. Strauss, Communications, 212-434-9536, mstrauss@cfr.org
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1.212.434.9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.